Israel and Gaza: Undeveloping a territory

By Michael Jansen, in Middle East International,20 October 1995

NOTE: The following are selections from an
article in Middle East International ( 20 October 1995), by Michael
Jansen summarizing some of the key points made by Dr. Sara Roy in her
recently published book on Gaza. Her book, The Gaza Strip: the
political economy of de-development was published by the Institute
of Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C. and I.B. Tauris, London, 1995;
L18.95

Sara Roy's new book slays once and for all the myth that
Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank has been, as
some Israelis claim, 'benevolent' or 'benign'. While
describing the devastating consequences of this
occupation, the author demonstrates in no uncertain terms
that the Israelis always had malign intentions towards the
Palestinians they occupied in 1967.

The author. . .the daughter of Holocaust survivors. . .argues
successfully that the relationship between Israel
and Gaza 'is characterized by an economic process specific
to Israeli rule', the proce ss of 'de-development' or the
'deliberate, systematic deconstruction of an indigenous
economy by a dominant power'. Underdevelopment, the
situation prevailing in much of the Third World, is
distinguished from 'de-development' by both the intentions
of the occupying power and the consequences of its
policies.

'De-development,' she asserts, 'commenced only under
Israeli occupation.' In Gaza's long historical experience
of occupiers, Israel was unique in that its intention was
the complete dispossession of the Palestinian people and
the assimilation of their land and resources. As a
consequence, Israel's policies have always been designed
to deprive the Palestinians of their land, water and
labour w ith the objective of building Israel and not a
competing Palestinian entity....

...The Gaza coastal strip covers only 27 per cent of the
territory of the old mandatory Gaza sub-district, yet in
1948 this narrow piece of land had to house not only the
entire population of the di strict but also tens of
thousands of refugees from the central coastal towns of
Jaffa and Haifa and much of southwest Palestine. The
indigenous population of 70,000 was swamped by some
250,000 who fled. Although Gaza had a population of over
half a million at the time of the Israeli occupation, the
Israelis were not deterred from planting settlements in
the Strip and appropriating 40 per cent of its land and
more than half of its water. Today 850,000 Palestinians
live in the self-rule enclavewhich comprises only 60
per cent of the area of the Gaza Stripone of the
world's most den sely populated locations.

Once installed in the Strip, Israel pacified the
resistant populace and then set about Gaza's
deconstruction by expropriating the land and water,
integrating certain categories of the Gaza labour force
into the Israeli economy and dismantling the existing
economic infrastructure. The Palestinians were thus
subjected to a particularly pernicious form of 'settler
colonialism' and de-development. For instance, Israel
denied to Palestinian towns and villages the roads,
running water and electricity supplied to all Israeli
settlements in the territories....Gaza's schools,
hospitals and welfare services were not expanded to meet
the demands of the growing population. And Israel shut
down all the Arab banks in the territories and prohibited
Israeli banks from granting investment loans to Palestinians.

Sara Roy quotes Yitzhak Rabin, who in 1985, while defence
minister, said: 'There will be no development in the
occupied territories initiated by the Israeli government,
and no permits given for expanding agriculture and
industry which may compete with the state of Israel.'

Dr. Roy argues convincingly that Israel's intentions and
policies have not been changed by the peace process, the
signing of the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the
Palestine National Authorit y, and that Israel can be
expected to restrict and obstruct the economic development
of the Palestinian self-rule enclaves....Israel also
blocks the sale in Israel of cheap Gazan and West Bank
farm produce and prevents its export to Jordan.

The reason Israel continues to follow such policies, Dr.
Roy asserts, is that it has not yet renounced its claims
on or sovereignty over Gaza and the West Bank. Until (and
if) Israel takes this drastic step, she believes
'de-development will continue' because the Oslo Accords
have not altered the basic relationship between occupier
and occupied.

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